As soon as the ten Venerable-level Cold Energy Monsters appeared, they rallied a massive number of Beast King-level and ordinary Cold Energy Monsters, forming a great torrent.

They also dispatched envoys to the Ice Continent to warn the nations, demanding they evacuate immediately and answer for their transgressions.

This incident immediately infuriated the nations occupying the Ice Continent. For some time now, they had been enjoying the continent’s high concentration of cold energy, which allowed everyone to advance several times faster than before.

Making them leave now was simply impossible.

So, the first thing the high-level survivors in the nations did was... start bickering.

That’s right. They weren’t formulating a response. After all, for something as monumental as war, the internal division of spoils had to be settled first.

Meanwhile, the Cold Energy Monsters weren’t idle. They began a sweep to eliminate all survivors outside the Ice Continent.

After all, not just any survivor was qualified to set foot on the Ice Continent, this sacred land of cold energy.

Only a small minority of elites were qualified to enter. The vast majority of other survivors remained in their original locations, either assigned to work or simply trying to get by.

The Cold Energy Monsters weren’t just indiscriminately slaughtering; they were also rallying their scattered brethren from all over to further bolster their own strength.

Because of these actions, the number of survivors plummeted.

The Cold Energy Monsters declared this was a warning to humanity. If the nations remained obstinate, they would be made to pay the price with the blood of countless humans.

It was a nice idea, and it did have an impact on the nations.

Only, the impact wasn’t the deaths of their compatriots, but the loss of their labor force.

It didn’t directly affect the nations’ upper echelons, so their core interests remained untouched. After a brief glance at the situation, they went right back to their bickering.

’Keep it up,’ Qi Suian thought. ’Let’s hope the brain-rot gets even worse.’

Of course, the nations probably only had the luxury of acting this foolishly because they were confident in their military might.

As for Qi Suian, he was still hunting on the Ice Continent. His life hadn’t changed much.

Because the Tai Sui God flew too fast, the nations’ survivors had no way to restrict him.

And now, because of the Venerable-level Cold Energy Monsters, attention had gradually shifted away from him.

The Cold Energy Monsters were now killing survivors much more efficiently than Qi Suian ever did, and the deceased were, more importantly, the nations’ cheap labor.

So, the matter of Qi Suian was temporarily set aside, as if it had never been an issue in the first place.

But Qi Suian knew this was just the beginning.

If nothing unexpected happened, once the Cold Energy Monsters gathered in sufficient numbers, they would begin their assault on the Ice Continent.

All this fanfare was for the Ice Continent, the Cold Beast Ancestral Court. They weren’t just making empty threats.

On the seventh day after the ten Venerable-level Cold Energy Monsters appeared, the attack officially began.

This time, Qi Suian wasn’t in the sky. Mainly because there were flying Cold Energy Monsters, and he could easily run into them up there.

Getting caught up in that would be troublesome.

[The first wave of Cold Energy Monsters has begun to land]

The AI provided the alert. Qi Suian didn’t see it with his own eyes but through a holographic image from his reconnaissance network that showed the landing Cold Energy Monsters.

Leading the charge were, naturally, the ten Venerable-level Cold Energy Monsters.

Those that flew in the sky, crawled on the ground, and swam in the water—it was truly an eye-opening sight.

The Venerable-level Cold Energy Monsters were basically all-terrain, capable of fighting on land, in the sea, and in the air.

Then, the nations’ counterattack followed. A massive barrage of missiles rained down, blanketing the area.

It was precisely this confidence in their military power that gave the higher-ups the audacity to keep bickering.

However, this time, something unexpected happened with the missiles.

The explosions that should have followed were completely nullified, intercepted by a single Venerable-level Cold Energy Monster.

"That must be the Celestial Thunder Venerable," Qi Suian mused as he watched a massive, hawk-like creature move with lightning speed, its body wreathed in electrical currents.

In an instant, it generated an electromagnetic field. Using its own power, it forcibly disabled all the electronic missiles, then led a flock of hawk-like Cold Energy Monsters to scrap every last one.

Apparently, the Cold Energy Monsters had already learned about the nations’ technology from previously captured survivors.

Bullets need to hit their mark and missiles need to reach their destination. Otherwise, no matter how powerful conventional weapons are, they’re useless.

It was much like the predicament Qi Suian had faced with his Floating Cannons: they had the power to kill the enemy, but no way to ensure a hit.

Unlike his Floating Cannons, which no one dared to take head-on and could only evade, the nations’ high-yield weapons couldn’t command that same respect, at least for now.

The first wave of attacks was dealt with directly by the Cold Energy Monsters.

After all, the ten Venerable-level Cold Energy Monsters had lived for many years. While they were indeed ignorant when they first awoke, given time to adapt, they had naturally caught up with the times.

People from ancient times just had less knowledge than modern people; it doesn’t mean they were less intelligent.

"Technology versus Abnormal Beasts. The sense of déjà vu is strong with this one," Qi Suian quipped, though he understood one thing clearly.

The nations’ next attack would be even more ferocious.

The first wave’s failure was no big deal; the second wave followed immediately, and in even greater numbers.

To the leaders of the nations, if sacrificing a group of civilian survivors meant they could wipe out the Cold Energy Monsters in one fell swoop, it was an absolutely worthwhile trade.

The nations attacked with their old methods, just with more firepower. Naturally, the Cold Energy Monsters countered with their own enhanced old methods.

Compared to survivors, the Cold Energy Monsters, with their dual attributes, far surpassed them in both their starting point and growth potential.

Thus, every failed attempt to effectively kill them allowed more Cold Energy Monsters to set foot on the Ice Continent.

Once the monsters pushed deeper inland, the nations’ leaders would have to hold back, hesitant to act for fear of causing collateral damage to their own assets.

If they just bombed the area directly, their own interests would be the ones taking the loss.

Thus, the missile strikes soon stopped. Tanks, artillery, and aircraft officially entered the fray.

This meant the war had entered its second phase.

At the same time, the Clone Legion appeared on the battlefield to engage the Cold Energy Monsters directly, though still equipped with conventional weapons.

However, in the brutal melee, although the Cold Energy Monsters couldn’t withstand guns and grenades, they relied on their tenacious life force and varied abilities.

They immediately gained the upper hand upon engagement.

Of course, both sides now began to officially take losses.

But the territory of the Ice Continent was slowly being taken by the Cold Energy Monsters, from the outside in.

The battle had been raging for less than an hour, but the Cold Energy Monsters’ advance was incredibly fast.

The main reasons were that they had no fear of death, were more highly evolved, were massive in number, and had a continuous stream of reinforcements.

’It seems the nations have been at peace for too long. They never imagined war would be this cruel.’ Meanwhile, Qi Suian was wondering how he could profit from all this.

The nations were used to resolving disputes through politics. Now, faced with Cold Energy Monsters that had no interest in reason and only wanted a fight to the death, they were caught completely off guard.

The most important reason was that, in terms of overall strength, the Cold Energy Monsters were far stronger than the nations formed by the survivor groups.

’With this level of carnage, it’s going to be hard to collect the corpses. We’d probably have to just scrape off the top layer of the ground.’ Qi Suian thought, his eyes turning red with avarice as he stared at the bloody, minced-flesh landscape.

Needless to say, using it all as fuel would definitely yield high returns.

It was a bit grotesque, but that slurry of flesh and blood was composed entirely of dead Extraordinary Beings.

Qi Suian checked the map on his reconnaissance network. He probably wouldn’t be able to get his hands on it anytime soon. The number of Cold Energy Monsters was simply too large.

Their stream of reinforcements hadn’t stopped for a moment.

"Interesting. Even the Apocalypse Game is running an event now," Qi Suian remarked, suddenly noticing a new notification.

[Points Event: Defend the Ice Continent]

Qi Suian also saw the rewards. The event was no small affair.

In past events, the reward slots were usually limited to the top three or top ten, with rewards diminishing down the list.

This time, they went straight to rewarding the top one hundred.

And first place directly offered a C-rank reward.

This was already extremely generous.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that Qi Suian himself possessed nothing below S-rank; that was purely thanks to the Tai Sui God’s unique nature, the home-field advantage he’d had in the Profound World, and his accumulated knowledge as a reincarnator.

After leaving the Profound World, he had only encountered one item in the Polar Day World that was recognized by the Apocalypse Game.

That thing was the Sun in a Bottle, and it had nearly cost him half his life.

As for the Apocalypse Game’s rewards, he had never once received any.

’But this leaderboard refreshes incredibly fast.’ Qi Suian thought as he opened it. In just a few minutes, the top one hundred names had already completely changed over.

This meant the casualties were immense.

’I can only say the Apocalypse Game is truly incompetent. It can’t even control the overall situation and has to just go with the flow.’

’If it ever runs into something like a living Profound God, the Apocalypse Game itself would probably get flayed alive.’

-----------------

"The event rewards are indeed generous. What a pity," Tang Qing said, looking at the newly started "Points Event: Defend the Ice Continent."

But it was restricted in scope; only killing Cold Energy Monsters on the main battlefront of the Ice Continent would award points.

Points couldn’t be obtained in other areas.

However, if one wanted to participate, it wasn’t impossible. The Apocalypse Game had opened a limited-time teleportation service directly to the battlefield.

However, seeing the constantly shifting names on the leaderboard, everyone could tell just how brutal this event was.

Though Tang Qing said it was a pity, he had no intention of going to the battlefield.

Compared to that, he first had to complete the trial assessment arranged for him by the Taiyin Celestial Monarch to obtain the sixth level of the Taiyin Refining Technique.

This was no simple matter.

Besides, a battle of this intensity was not something he could get involved in.

Even with his strength, he probably wouldn’t last long under siege by a massive number of Cold Energy Monsters.

’I just don’t know what Master and the others are thinking.’

’Logically, they should choose to reinforce the nations.’

Tang Qing couldn’t fathom the Taiyin Celestial Monarch’s thoughts, but with the situation this dire, saying they wouldn’t go was surely inappropriate.

Over the past few days, he had become certain of one thing: the Taiyin Celestial Monarch definitely had ulterior motives concerning him.

He just wasn’t sure what those motives were yet.

Just like this trial assessment—he guessed it was some kind of preparation.

’If we can go and reinforce the nations, that would be a good thing for me.’

’At least it would divert some of my Master’s attention away from me.’